Transocean official says remote subs needed higher capacity

Remote-operated vehicles, or ROVs, need to be able to pump at larger volumes in order to be effective for well-equipment intervention, a Transocean official told investigators on Wednesday at federal oil spill hearings in Houston.

AP Photo/David J. Phillip

Transocean’s Billy Stringfellow is sworn in on Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010 in Houston.

Subsea superintendent Billy Stringfellow said that, under normal operating conditions, about 20 to 25 gallons of fluid is pumped in every 15 seconds to trigger blind shear rams on a blowout preventer, cutting off a well if oil or gas bubbled up.

But after the blowout at the Deepwater Horizon rig, officials looked for ROVs to shut rams using a hot stab and could only locate robots that could pump that volume of fluid every three to five minutes on the surface.

Stringfellow was among more than a dozen witnesses set to testify this week in hearings before a federal investigative board led by officials from the U.S. Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

“Do you think for ROV hot stabs to work — looking forward — is there a need to pump at higher volume based on what you’ve seen in the Macondo?” joint investigation co-chair David Dykes asked during questioning Wednesday.

“In my opinion, yes,” Stringfellow said.

He added that he did not think Transocean had looked at the ROV market to see if anyone could pump larger volumes than the ones offered following the accident.